15 Aug PARSHAS SHOFTIM THE SYSTEM MUST PREVAIL – RIGHT OR WRONG

In this
week’s parsha, we are
commanded to adhere to
the teachings of the
Jewish Court:
“According to the
teaching that they will
teach you and according to the judgment
they will say to you, shall you do; you shall
not deviate from the word they will tell you,
right or left.” [Devarim 17:11] Not only is
there a positive command to listen to a
Jewish Court, but moreover there is a
negative prohibition of deviating from that
which they tell you.
The Sefer haChinuch formulates the
negative prohibition: “We are forbidden
from arguing with the transmitters of
tradition (ba’aley haKabbalah) or from
changing their instructions or deviating
from their guidance in all Torah matters.”
As is his literary style, the Chinuch delves
into the reason behind this commandment:
The nature of human beings is that they are
argumentative and have disagreements.
People view things differently. The

Almighty realized that if everyone had the
ability to interpret Torah according to their
own understanding of the pasukim [verses],
anarchy would reign amongst the Jewish
people. Such an approach would be a recipe
for disaster and the Torah would quickly
disintegrate into a multiplicity of legal
codes. Therefore, it is incumbent on the
masses to follow the central authority of the
Jewish High Court.
Lest we think that this only applies to the
Sanhedrin that sat in the Hewn Chamber on
the premises of the Holy Temple, the
Chinuch continues: “And thus it is to be in
each and every generation that the masses
must listen to the Sages (of that generation)
who received their tradition with much
diligence and effort from the Sages of
previous generations. And concerning this
matter, the scripture enjoins us not to
deviate from the words of our teachers ‘to
the right or to the left’. Our rabbis have
interpreted this to mean that even if they tell
us that what we think is our right hand is our
left hand and what we think is our left hand
is our right hand, we should accept their

teaching.” (Sifrei)
How can this be so? If we empirically
know that the Sages are wrong, then
why listen to them? The Chinuch
addresses this question:
“Even if they are in error about a
certain matter, it is inappropriate for
us to dispute them and we should go
along with their error. It is better to
suffer with their single mistake (rather
than undermine their authority), so
that in general their good advice will remain
sovereign and the masses will always be
bound by their wise authority.” In other
words, they may be wrong on occasion but
it is better for the “system” that they not be
questioned, even about their obvious errors.
Once people start arguing with the Sages,
the entire infrastructure of Rabbinic
authority will collapse. Once the system
collapses, it’s all over! It is better live with
the mistake, rather than destroy the whole
system.
Rav Hutner once wrote the following
letter to a congregation honoring their
Moreh d’ Asra [Rabbi] (who was a
former student of Rav Hutner’s) on
the occasion of his tenth anniversary
with the congregation:
People do not appreciate what a
Moreh d’Asra represents. In large
cities, there was always the tradition
of having a ‘City Clock’ on top of a
high tower. Superficially, people
assume that the purpose of having a
clock so high up is so everyone will
be able to see the correct time from a
great distance. The real reason,
however, is that if the clock were
easily accessible to everyone (without
a ladder) then everyone would look at
their own watch and adjust the clock
based on what he perceived to be the
correct time. Each person would
think: “The City Clock is wrong!”
That was the wisdom of putting the
clock so high up that people would
have to set their watches by the City
Clock.
Rav Hutner noted that the Moreh
d’Asra must be the ‘City Clock’. He
has to be put on a pedestal. His
opinion has to be above everyone
else’s. If the Moreh d’Asra is just like
anyone else, people will try to set the
opinion of their Moreh d’Asra
according to their own personal
opinions. One person will turn him
one way and another person will turn
him another way, and the net result
will be chaos. Therefore, a Rav must

occupy a position like the City Clock. “Set
not the Rav’s opinion according to your
opinion; set your opinion according to the
opinion of your Rav.”
The Sefer HaChinuch e x p l a i n s
the Gemara in Bava Metzia relating to “the
oven of Achinai”. Rav Eliezer had a dispute
with the Sages about a matter relating to the
laws of ritual impurity. Rav Eliezer invoked
all kinds of supernatural events to prove the
veracity of his position. However, a Bas Kol
[Heavenly Voice] proclaimed: “It is not in
Heaven” – meaning that rules of the Torah
cannot be decided by miraculous signs. The
policy “majority (opinion of Torah Sages)
rules” (acharei rabim l’hatos) is sacrosanct.
Therefore, the halacha was established like
the Sages and not like Rav Eliezer, despite
all the signs from Heaven that Rav Eliezer
was able to invoke to “prove” the correctness
of his opinion.
The Gemara concludes with a
postscript. Rav Nasan found Eliyahu the
prophet and asked him what the Almighty
was doing at that moment when the
heavenly proofs were rejected and
the halacha was established like the
majority opinion. Eliyahu responded
that G-d (as it were) smiled and said: “My
children have defeated me.”
The Chinuch explains this exchange as
follows: In an absolute sense Rav Eliezer
was right in his position and the Sages were
wrong. However sometimes there is a
principle that is even more important than
the truth. “Following the majority” is such a
principle. One must follow the majority,
right or wrong! Truth becomes almost
secondary if applying the truth would
violate one of the Torah’s rules of
jurisprudence.
This is the exact same idea that the
Chinuch introduces regarding
the mitzvah of following the Sages “even if
they tell you right is left and left is right.”
Even if the Chachomim are making a
mistake, there must be a system for the
Torah to continue. The system is that there
must be an authority. Not everyone can
pasken for himself and view things from his
own perspective.